5. The great use of checks is shown also by the large number of accounts under $500....
6. We may therefore safely accept an average of 80 to 85 per cent. as the probable percentage of business of this country done by check.
7. The fact that so large a proportion of business is done with credit paper may or may not be a good thing. Whether it is or not depends on circumstances. If any part of the country is compelled to use checks because of the lack of currency, when it would prefer the latter, the situation is an evil.
8. The transaction of so large a volume of our business by checks is an element of danger in times of stringency and crisis. In such times the uncalled balance of credit transactions creates a larger demand for money, but the habit of settling by check has meantime kept the available amount of money at a minimum.
9. Consequently there ought to be some means of supplying additional currency when credit as a means of payment diminishes. This currency ought to be as safe and as uniform as the ordinary currency, and it should be capable of being quickly emitted and recalled. That is, it should possess elasticity.
10. The large money circulation of the country is explained by the facts that our prices and wages range high, that our people probably carry a larger average amount of money on their persons than do foreigners, that some portion of our currency has been destroyed or lost or hoarded.... As our business grows, the amount of money needed as reserve to perform this vast volume of business transactions increases, too....
13. The volume of credit transactions very likely tends to increase as population and business grow. It does not increase uniformly, however, but by periodic movements. That is to say, the rate of increase of credit transactions, as compared with the whole volume of business, grows, as it were, by jerks and at a decreasing rate.
Several important questions are closely related to the inquiry which has been [made and summarized]. Among them are these:
1. What is the amount of money rendered unnecessary by the use of credit paper?
2. What is the influence of the vast volume of credit transactions on the value of money or the level of prices?[41]